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Composition Update Week 3

For my composition, I began looking at other types of audio illusions. While looking into the world of audio illusions, I thought of the sound that divided the world into two halves in 2018. Do you hear Yanny or Laurel? Turns out, younger ears that can hear higher pitches hear Yanny, while ears that can not hear higher frequencies hear Laurel. The two words had a very similar shape on a band EQ, and when layered on top of each other fit together perfectly. I tried replicating the sounds, only to realise how much work must have been put into it to make it sound like just one sound.

I changed a lot of my ideas about how I want my composition to be. I want to make it rhythmic and full of anticipation that keeps the listener on the edge of their seats. In order to do that, Shepard Tones are definitely going to help me. However, I am also going to include sounds that have a connotation of hurriedness, for example, clock ticks, pencil scribbling on a paper etc.

Over the week, I was facing some technical difficulties for my DAW since I use FL Studio, and FL Studio runs on windows and I have a mac. Well, Image-Line has made a version for mac, however, it's going to be a LONG WHILE before all the plugins are also launched for mac, and thus it's only wise to use it on a Windows. So I use parallels desktop on my mac which allows me to run both windows and mac on my computer, however, it does result in some technical issues when installing new software. I still haven't figured out what I'm doing wrong while installing this new synth I found on the internet. I hope I get it figured out soon enough so I can use it for my composition.

Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 5, 2020 at 8:51 AM

    Ani, I'm really interested to hear what you come up with, the concept of auditory illusions seems really neat to me. I also like the idea of trying to trick the listener muahahaha. I also have no idea what the Yanny and Laurel thing is so maybe I'll have to go check that out now...

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  2. Ben GunschMarch 5, 2020 at 9:11 AM

    Ani,

    You're idea about auditory illusions is really cool. And I can totally understand that getting the Yanny/Laurel thing to line up would be rather tricky. You've mentioned you'd like to focus on giving your piece more rhythmic impetus, with such things as shepherd tones. Perhaps another device of rhythmic illusion to consider, though well-established in the Western tradition, is hemiola. Just like being able to look at the same picture and see two completely different images, through hemiola, audiences can experience rhythm at two different levels simultaneously.

    -Ben Gunsch

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  3. AnonymousMarch 5, 2020 at 10:14 AM

    I've heard about the Yanny/Laurel "controversy", but never actually listened to the recording. Thanks for explaining how it actually works, I've always kind of wondered. I like your ideas about how to make a hurried-sounding piece by using certain sounds that we associate with feeling hurried. As listeners we're always picking up on things like that, even if it is subconscious. Also since you explained what Shepard Tones are, I've been hearing them everywhere!

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